Despite considerable rhetoric from politicians about cutting spending and reducing the size of government, there’s been little in the way of actual results. At best a few promise for future cuts have been secured, but we know what those are worth. A good measure of the seriousness, or lack thereof, with which Congress approaches cutting wasteful spending is the funding level of the OECD, a Paris-based bureaucracy that advocates for higher taxes and bigger government.
Writing at Townhall.com, Lincoln Brown summarized the issue succinctly:
The questions you should ask your representative is “Did you vote for OECD appropriations and if so, why do you deserve my vote over say, the raccoon in the middle of the road that I swerved to miss on my way to meet with you?”
…The original idea behind the OECD when it was founded back in 1960 was to have it promote trade between developed nations. It has devolved into a big-government wealth- redistribution engine with an international reach. It promotes among other things VAT taxes and Keynesian policy.
The money it administers often goes to corrupt and oppressive governments. Not only are your tax dollars funding this, but the people whose salaries are financed by your tax dollars have been authorizing it. And while the OECD may want to redistribute money from developed nations, its employees apparently have no compunctions about living large themselves, with nice offices in the City Of Lights and tax free salaries.
All on your nickel. And the OECD needs a lot of your nickels. It has an annual budget of 400 million dollars and you are picking up the tab for about 22 percent of that.
That should be enough for you to start circulating recall petitions in your neighborhood, but the fun doesn’t end there. Richard Rahn of the Washington Times notes that the OECD is blowing its own horn over the fact that it has made strides in the sharing of tax information across international lines.
…And yes, the OECD has the support of the Obama Administration, but that goes without saying. The eye-opener here is that the Cut, Cap, Balance and Bush-Tax-Cut-Extension-crowd in the House of Representatives keeps giving the stamp of approval to this travesty.
The GOP cannot blame the Democrats in a legislative body in which it is the majority.
If the Republican led House is as serious about cutting spending as the rhetoric of its members suggests, why are they planning yet another Continuing Resolution, which means business as usual for wasteful and counterproductive organizations like the OECD? CF&P will continue our work to educate members on the Hill about the need to cut OECD funding, in the hopes that they decide it is time to get serious.
For more on the OECD see our information page here.
